As an avid sports fan, I grew up following my favorite teams and staying up well past my bedtime to watch Monday night football. The next day, I'd go to school proudly wearing my jersey and challenging anyone who wanted to talk about the game. Sometimes, I'd argue with Broncos fans. Other times, I'd debate a Jets fan. But, no matter what state I lived in, I always wore my Pittsburgh Steelers jersey.
Call me stubborn, but I, not once in my life, cheered for another team. I've gone to Super Bowl parties and tailgates, and yet, while I may hope for one team to win over another, I still keep my lips from shouting another team's name, although I have seen friends adopt the team of their current duty station as their own. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but I have always found being a Steelers fan to be one of the few concrete aspects of my personality; no matter where I moved or who I met, I would always be a Steelers fan.
On the other hand, my brother is, embarrassingly enough, a 49ers fan. While I was wise enough to align my views with my Mom's and support the Steelers, my brother followed my Dad in cheering for the 'Niners. Being from San Francisco, Dad was always a 49ers fan, even if he went through a few rough decades of sacks and interceptions. And when he moved to West Point, NY for college and fell in love with a girl from Cleveland, he still wore the red and gold jersey every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday.
My mom grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, but do not fret! She is not and was never a Browns fan. Her own dad was a Steelers fan so she was raised as one, and so was I. Even while growing up in Cleveland in the '80s when there was an intense rivalry between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Mom never once switched alliances.
You may be wondering at this point why in the world a journalist for Bloom, a military teen blog, not a sports blog, is detailing the history of my family's football opinions. Well, dear reader, I have a point and that point is that no matter where the Army takes me, some parts of me can't be touched, can't be changed. I have developed different hobbies at different duty stations or picked up on new music or TV shows. Some moves strengthened me or changed my political views, and others had me decorating my room with pink undertones or blue undertones. But there are some things so deep in your bones, so central to your heart, that they simply can't be changed. And for me, that's being a Steelers fan.